Thursday, June 25, 2009

A study released recently compared the attitude of people to cultural differences before and after listening to patriotic music and found that:

"(...) preliminary findings showed that the patriotic songs had a negative effect on the participants, as shown through their responses to the survey's questions about other cultures and diversity. The patriotic songs made the participants close-minded and prejudiced.

"Once they were in a patriotic point of view, they were less empathetic," Alvarado said. "They didn't put themselves in other people's perspective."

Interesting analysis of the effects of propaganda, however, I am a bit skeptical that a single song in a controlled environment can do that much.

1 comment:

I also am a bit sceptical about that, I love the music of the nationalist era around the world, themes as Tchaikovsky's 1812 or Moncayo's Huapango, etc. who were clearly intended to expose the nationalist sentiments of their people are really master works.